Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

4. The Elric’s – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families
Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

There is a whole lot of tragic back story to go around in Fullmetal Alchemist, but one of the most obvious dysfunctional families in anime is, of course, the Elric’s.

I mean, they didn’t turn their only daughter into a chimera (no, I didn’t forget him), but they did grow up with an absent father and placed all their affection towards their mother.

Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families
Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

When she died, they tried to bring her back against all sound reason and ended up severely maiming one brother while almost disappearing the other.

5. The Gasai’s – Future Diary

Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families
Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

Both main characters as well as many side characters in Future Dairy feature horrible families. However, while Mr. Amano murdering Mrs. Amano while furiously trying to rid himself of debt is pretty messed up, it is not quite as horrible as the Gasai’s.

In Yuno’s flashbacks, it is shown that she was ceaselessly pushed to excel by her adoptive parents. When money troubles hit, her father began to stay late at work and her mother began to abuse her. She went so far as to lock her up in a cage until she became perfect.

Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families
Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

Eventually, Yuno turned this around on her parents, locking them in the cage instead. However, after failing to check on them, they ended up starving to death.

6. The Arima’s – Your Lie in April

Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families
Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

The Arima family in Your Lie in April is likely one of the most emotionally complex families in anime.

While Kousei’s father is your typical absent Japanese salaryman, it is his mother where most of the dysfunction stems from. She was a talented musician until an illness left her unable to play. Initially she did not want her son to be a musician because of the pressure, but when he turned out to be a prodigy, a friend encouraged her to let him play.

Unfortunately, as she got sicker, she wanted to pass on as many skills for his success as possible before she was gone, forgetting music was a thing to enjoy and more for him to financially support himself. It led to great technical skill, but it also lead to the pressure she had wanted him to avoid.

Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families
Think Your Family Is Bad? 14 Dysfunctional Anime Families

However, the pressure that really weighed on Kousei was the thought in his young mind that if he played well, his mother would get better.

This left him broken after she died and initially left audiences hating her. However, as the series went on, through flashbacks you saw a kindness and began to learn more of her motives that left that hatred a little more conflicting.


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